Rightfully Suspicious
by Rakora
Summary: Erza was sure that something was up. Especially after she saw what she saw during that important meeting. Erza POV Cana/Macao


Erza's eye twitched for the seventh time that day.

She had always known that she had a short-fused temper. That it didn't take much to set her off. She was notorious for her 'no nonsense' attitude and feared by most because of it. She didn't try to be like that, she didn't even want to be like that. But when things needed to get done, they needed to get done, and _someone_ had to be the hard ass that got it done.

Apparently, that hard ass in Fairy Tail was her.

Her sharp eyes cut over to glare at Gray and Natsu. The two were scowling darkly at each other non-too-subtly over the brink of their papers. She watched with a dull interest as Gray mouthed the words, 'Fuck off, Fireflake' at Natsu. In turn, the pink haired fire mage tightened his grip on the papers he held and mouthed, 'Who ya callin' a fireflake, iceflake!'

She was used to their antics and even found them a little amusing. Did they really think that she didn't know that whenever she turned her back they were at each other's throat? Did they think she was deaf? Everyone within a 100 foot radius could hear their fights. Especially when they pissed off Lucy. Then everyone in a 150 foot radius could hear the ruminants and consequences resulting from said fight.

"Natsu," Erza made sure that her voice stayed monotone, it seemed to scare them more, "If you burn those important documents, the council won't be the only ones after your head." She snorted to herself. The papers in his hand were nothing more than the rejected pages to Lucy's book. She would _never_ let Natsu handle anything as important as the paper's they were currently reviewing.

"Aye" Natsu chirped obediently and busied himself with 'reading' the 'important papers'. He was holding the stack upside down for crying out loud.

A snicker caught her attention and drew it over to Gray. The dark haired man was smirking at Natsu, oblivious to her hard stare. "And Gray, put some clothing on and stop provoking Natsu. Now is not the time for monkey business."

Gray looked down at himself and cursed under his breath. "Why does this always happen at important meetings? I mean this is just ridiculous; how can I not realize I'm taking off my freakin' underwear!"

Beside him, Lucy's eyes widen and she scooted away from him as discretely as she could. Erza didn't blame her.

"Hey Luce, can I borrow your underwear?" Gray asked, hand held palm-out expectantly.

The blonde outright blanched at the dark haired man. "G-Gray! I already told you 'no' once! What would make this time any different?"

The ice age shrugged and put the papers over his lower region. They were also a part of Lucy's rejected pages. "That was when we first met. I figured now that we are nakama I would give it another shot."

Lucy averted her eyes in embarrassment. "It's still a resounding 'no', and always will be! So don't bother asking again!" Erza noted the blush tainting Lucy's cheeks. She wasn't sure if that was a blush warranting an 'awww' or a sympathetic look. She decided a little of both.

"Anyway. As you guys know our guild is in danger of being greatly restricted, or even shut down under the new ruling laws. We need to make changes and they have to be made swiftly," Erza eyed everyone at the table. This was the majority of Fairy Tail minus Master Makarov. He was at a monthly meeting, "Before we start, does anyone disagree with that?" Her stare challenged anyone to oppose her. No one did.

"Good. We'll start with tackling the biggest issue. Our failure over success ratio. Who has those papers?"

On the other side of the large, makeshift, table (Which was really just all the tables in the guild pushed together) Macao cleared his voice. "According to the records from last year we were at a 458/713."

Erza punched that up in the calculator on the table in front of her. She narrowed her eyes. "64%." She sat back in her chair and ran a hand through her hair. This wasn't good at all. "Do you guys understand what this means?"

The group was silent.

"This means that we've virtually failed 458 missions out of 713 this year" She shuffled through her papers until she found a page detailing the new tolerance law. "If a guild does not obtain and keep a 45% failure average for six months minimum then that guild will be ultimately disbanded." She read.

The group was so silent that a pin could drop and the noise it made would echo. She watched as the individual metaphorical gears turned in each of the members' heads. The first one to show signs of realization was Lucy.

"W-wait," She started vigilantly, brown eyes wide, "that means that Fairy Tail is in danger of closing."

The words lingered heavily in the air. The tension in the room thickened ten fold as each guild member put one and one together.

One…

Two…

Three…

"WHAT?" The chair that Natsu had been sitting in fell to the ground with a loud thud. The fire mage's hands simultaneously burst into flames as he tilted his head back and let out a large roar of fire. The flames licked at the rafters; just barely missing where Happy had been sleeping.

The poor cat barely had time to fly away before the guild burst into chaos.

Gray, still completely naked, was flinging daggers of ice at Natsu. The sharp projectiles melting before they even got close to the enraged dragon slayer. Erza watched from her seat as Gray pounded his fist together and shouted out something that she couldn't quite make out over the other voices. She figured it had to do with a giant spear, because that was what was launched at Natsu next.

This too, didn't touch him. The dragon slayer was emitting such immense amounts of heat that the tables surrounding him were bursting into flames. The floor where he stood was bubbling and melting away from his feet.

"NATSU STOP!" Lucy's voice was loud and shrill, "You're setting everything on fire _again!_"

Much to Lucy's credit, she did get Natsu to calm down a bit. Even if it was just for the brief second when he looked at her. This was something that Erza still had trouble doing. She'd have to congratulate the spirit mage later when this mess was resolved. She'd accomplished something that was just as difficult as an S class request. She'd gotten Natsu to listen.

Alas, victory does not last long, especially when Natsu was involved. The dragon slayer had finally noticed the ice daggers and spears Gray was flinging at him. Lucy backed up and ducked just as a large burst of flame showered over Gray. The ice mage just barely had time to dip to the side. The rest of the guild, the thirty or so members engaged in a heated debate behind Gray, were not nearly as lucky.

"_You_!" The blue haired bookworm rounded on Natsu from her spot behind Gajeel. The iron dragon slayer had intercepted Natsu's wayfarer attack for Levy, "If anyone here is responsible for these atrocious stats it's you! So instead of burning down the guild and the people in it _maybe_ you should try cleaning your act up. If not for yourself, then for your nakama!"

Natsu's mouth gaped open. He'd probably never seen Levy so serious about something before. Yeah, she was by nature a passionate person, what she loved, she loved from the bottom of her heart. A confrontation on the other hand was something that the petite woman avoided. Yes, she was passionate, but she was also shy and considerate too.

The look on her face reminded Erza of Phantom's attack and when they found out Lucy was their target. Her frown was set in determination and her shoulder's were squared. She was ready for a battle. By all rights, she was probably voluntarily walking into one of the toughest battles she had ever encountered.

"She's right Natsu. With the way you and Gray go at it it's a wonder all of Mongolia hasn't been set on fire or frozen yet." That was Lucy, she was standing next to Natsu now, a perfectly pedicure hand resting on his shoulder, "Not to mention how many town's you've destroyed without his help."

"I call bullshit on this!" Somehow in the scuffle, Gray had found his clothes; or at least his pants. "There is no way only Natsu and I are responsible for all of that."

"As a family," Erza started slowly. She almost smiled when every eye in the room honed in on her. She didn't have to yell or anything, "We should not push a problem that every one of us contributed to onto the shoulders of merely two people. This is a burden than can only be resolved if every person takes their share of the weight.

Now, if everyone would take their seats again maybe we can come up with a solution before Master returns."

* * *

><p>Two hours later and the guild mates were <em>still<em> sitting in the middle of the room. The tables were _still _set up in a conference like manner. Everyone was _still _seated in the same chairs they'd been in earlier.

It was safe to say that no solution was made within the last couple of hours.

Erza was pretty sure that she was about to lose her voice. She'd spent roughly half of that time yelling over the random arguments that broke out during the meeting. The other half was used to quell Natsu and Gray without using violent tendencies.

Obviously, that meant she was practically screeching at them to behave. She was sure that her speech about family and burdens had actually gotten the point of this meeting into their thick sculls. They'd sat down obediently and _quietly_ and everything.

Sitting back in her chair and scanning the bunch she frowned. This had defiantly been an utter failure. When Master had asked her to bring the new laws up to the guild he had been hoping that the bad news would open their eyes.

It just served to make things more chaotic and violent.

But in the same breath; she couldn't say that it was a complete waste of time either. The guild mates have never been circled up before. So therefore have never actually interacted with everyone at the same time like they were now.

It was…interesting. Erza was noticing things that she'd over looked prior to this day. From her spot at the head of the tables she could see everyone and as a result everything that happened.

She'd never noticed the way that Gray looked at Lucy. The sidelong glances were frequent and obvious but the blonde seemed entirely ignorant of their occurrences. Erza even noticed that Gray would do this dramatic hair flippy thing. While he was doing it he would lean towards Lucy, just barely touching the biceps of his arm against hers.

Still, Lucy was preoccupied. She was either talking to Levy, who was seated directly across from her, or leering at Natsu. Erza wasn't sure if Lucy was watching Natsu to make sure he didn't get himself into too much trouble or if she was watching him for the sake of doing it. Either way, it was pretty damn cute.

That was all puppy love stuff compared to how Cana and Macao were interacting. The two had sat next to each other and at first Erza hadn't paid them much mind. They were quiet for the most part and seemingly concentrating on the papers in their hands.

So it took her a while to notice what was really going on between the two. Erza had noticed by chance when her calculator slipped off of the side of the table. She'd bent down to grab it, but right before she returned to her up right position she noticed that Macao's hand was running up and down the inside of Cana's thigh underneath the table.

How absolutely curious.

It was the first time she noticed their blossoming relationship and it certainly wasn't the last.

* * *

><p>The next time Erza witnessed another one of Cana's and Macao's moments was at a restaurant. If she wasn't attentively watching the two mages she would have probably missed it like the rest of the group did.<p>

It was a fancy restaurant, everyone (and that included Natsu), had to dress up. The occasion was a mystery to everyone, even Erza herself. The only thing the guild members knew was that Master had important news and they all had to be at the restaurant when he arrived.

Of course, it shouldn't come to anyone's surprise that the Master was an hour late. Punctuality really wasn't his thing after all.

Everyone had finished eating a while ago and now some where talking, some were glaring at one another, and others were finishing the last of their drinks.

It was at this time that Cana and Macao slipped away. No one else seemed noticed besides Erza.

When the two returned, they both effortlessly slipped into separate conversations. The other participants in the conversations little to no wiser to their recent reappearance.

It was only Erza who noticed the flushed cheeks and glazed over eyes both Cana and Macao sported.

How oh so very peculiar.

The next incident involved Lucy and Natsu.

Erza had walked into the guild only to see the blonde flailing about, eyes narrowed dangerously at the pink haired boy.

"What the hell, Natsu! How could you do that to me?" Lucy's voice cracked. She sounded like she was extremely close to tears now.

Natsu seemed to have noticed that too. Contrary to Lucy's heated glare Natsu's own stare was guilt ridden and sheepish. He looked to the ground and pouted. "I didn't mean to Luce."

At his feet was a pile of ash. It was pretty big in size, and still smoking. What ever had happened must have happened recently.

"I've been working on that for five _whole years_! Five. Whole. Years. Just went up in flames _NATSU_!"

"I'm sorry alright; you can't blame me for your writing being that good. The fight scene was so life like—"

"Don't patronize me, you jerk! This is something that can be fixed with a simple _sorry Luce_. I'll never _ever_ get my story back. I can't rewrite it. I don't have an extra copy. That was irreplaceable and you just _burned it_!" Tears were rolling down her face. She didn't look sad or upset. No, she looked down-right pissed.

In response Natsu kicked at the ashes at his feet. Erza could just make out the reminisce of a page. "What do you want me to do then?" His voice was unnaturally soft.

"I want you to stop touching my stuff without permission. I want you to act like a fucking seventeen year old, not a seven year old. I want you to take responsibility for your mistakes and APOLOGIZE TO ME."

Natsu swallowed so hard that the gulp was heard throughout the silent room. "I-I'm sorry Luce. R-Really. I'll always ask you before I-I touch your stuff now."

"Alright. Now clean that up," Lucy pointed at the sad excuse for a story by Natsu's feet, "And stay away from me for the rest of the day. I need some time to calm down."

"Anything for you, Luce."

XxXx

A bit later found Erza sitting by the bar with a half eaten piece of strawberry cake in front of her. A couple stools down sat Cana, Macao, and Natsu in that order.

"How are you gonna make this up to Lucy?" Cana asked. Erza's ears perked at the question. She was just wondering the same thing a couple minutes ago. Lucy had a high tolerance for idiocy, but this may have just tipped the blonde over the scale. Natsu had to do something extraordinarily sweet and mushy and do it fast. Otherwise Erza doubted that Lucy would forgive him anytime soon.

"God, I don't even know. I really screwed up this time." Erza nodded in agreement, he sure did.

"Why not get her flowers and beg her for forgiveness. That's what I did and it worked pretty well." Macao's voice was teasingly sly. Erza glanced up from her cake to see the older man smirking at a blushing Cana.

"She was so…_touched_ that she even let me butter her muffin, "Macao nudged Natsu in the ribs, grinning widely, "_If you know what I mean_." He winked and waggled an eyebrow at Cana.

Cana looked down, letting her long hair cover her face. Her blush defiantly doubled tenfold. Erza could practically feel the heat surging off of her in waves.

"No, I don't know what you're talking about. Why would she let you 'butter her muffin' when she could probably do it herself?"

Both Cana and Macao face-palmed.

"And what does that have to do with forgiveness. I highly doubt Luce would let me off with just _buttering her muffin_. I mean that's ridiculous, she's so mad at me that even if I did do it she'd just shove it in my face and make me eat it."

Cana spewed her beer across the counter and doubled over in laughter. Macao did something that was strikingly similar to Cana's reaction. Instead of dissolving into laughter he clamped a hand down onto Natsu's shoulder and grinned at him.

For her part, Erza chocked on a piece of her strawberry cake.

"Oh the implication!" Cana wheezed, smacking her thigh in merit, "Jesus, I'm gonna _die_!"

"Wow Natsu, I didn't think either you or Lucy had that in you. She doesn't seem like the dominatrix type to me!" Macao turned and looked at Lucy.

Erza followed his gaze to the blonde. She was sitting at a table with Levy. The two were having a heated conversation, most likely about the novel that had just been destroyed. Lucy was gesturing wildly, her arms flying to her head and gripping her hair tightly. She looked very stressed.

"Roleplay maybe, she did dress up like a bunny that one time. But dominatrix is a little much." Macao finished, nodding to himself.

"Domin-what?"

"NOTHING," Erza slide from her stole, no longer hungry. She grabbed Natsu by the top of his ear and tugged him into a standing position, "You don't need to know about that." She aimed a calculated glower at the two drinking buddies, "Especially from these clowns."

"Who ya callin' clowns!" Said drinking buddies heatedly rebutted in unison.

She ignored them along with Natsu's cries of protest. She dragged him over to wear Lucy and Levy were sitting.

"You two make up now. Turns out that if he's not hanging around you he's hanging around dirty minded people. We wouldn't want a perverted Natsu running around now would we? So figure something out or I'll figure something out for you." She eyed Lucy for a second before turning to glare at Cana and Macao.

The two were sitting closer now and Macao was whispering something into Cana's ear. His hand was on her thigh. One of his fingers drawing lazy circles on the inside of it. She shifted awkwardly and blushed.

Something was going on between those two and it was no longer cute and romantic. Other people were going to lose their innocence because of it. Erza resolved to confront them about it tomorrow.

Turning on her heel she excited the guild. Erza had a lot of thinking to do.

* * *

><p>The mid-afternoon light filtered into the guild through the door. It was a very nice day, probably about eighty degrees outside, so Mirajane propped the main entrance doors open with two chairs to let the beautiful weather brighten the room.<p>

The Guild was surprisingly empty when Erza strode though the doors. She figured that most of them were probably enjoying the weather elsewhere. Maybe at a beach, or taking an easy mission. Well, that was the only type of mission they were allowed to take after the meeting finished. Even S class mages had to take simple missions until their stats improved.

Mirajane was washing down the counter, her regular pink dress a little damp from the water.

At the bar sat Lisanna, Lucy, and Levy. They were chatting amiably, and much to Erza's relief, Lucy seemed like she was back to normal. All smiles and giggles and blushes.

A good distance away from the girls was Cana and Macao. The pair was the last group in the guild. They were looking deep into each other eyes and whispering to each other. They were so absorbed in their hushed conversation that they didn't notice when Erza slipped into the stool next to them until her armor clanked.

"Oh…hey Erza," Cana eyed her tensely, putting a couple of inches between her body and Macao's, "How are you?"

"Actually, since you asked, I'm a bit confused about something and I was hoping you guys could clear it up." Yep, she defiantly had to be the hard-ass in the guild, otherwise nothing like this would get resolved.

Cana stared at her with a measured frown, sipping at her mug of beer. Finally, she spoke with an even tone. "Alright, shoot."

Erza ignored the defensive edge hidden under the smoothly spoken words. She decided to ask in a blunt manor. There's no sense in beating around the bush, which could potentially make this whole thing so much more awkward. "Are you guys having sex?"

The two were silent and marginally paler than they were a couple seconds ago. Eventually, it was Macao who spoke up. "Whatever do you mean, Erza?"

"Don't you start acting all innocent on me," Erza started, "I've been watching. I've been noticing. Either you tell me what's going on between you two or I'm going to start asking people if they've noticed too!"

Cana crossed her arms. "What goes on between us is exactly that. Between us; I don't see how this concerns you, Erza."

"It doesn't. But when it starts affecting other people in the guild then it becomes my business. It was your choice to make it so obvious."

"It's hard to be obvious when there's nothing going on. I have no idea what you're talking about; right Cana?"

Erza didn't miss the hurt expression that flashed over Cana's face at Macao's words before she agreed with him.

"I don't believe you." Erza didn't even consider their argument. She had so much incriminating evidence against them; she would be stupid to even consider their excuse.

"What?" The pair answered in sync.

"You heard me."

Macao straightened, "Alright then, give me one 'obvious moment'."

"At the dinner a couple weeks ago, you two left. When you returned you both looked like you'd just finished ravishing each other. Explain that."

Cana was quick to reply, "We went outside to sneak a drink. The alcohol they served sucked. It was cold and windy, so that's why we looked…disheveled." She couldn't tell if Cana was lying because man, the woman had a great poker face.

"Alright," Erza stared Cana straight in the eyes, "What about at the meeting a month ago. I dropped my calculator and when I looked up I saw Macao's hand dangerously close to your underwear line, Cana."

Macao's bark of laughter was laced with dark humor. "We were playing, 'are you nervous yet?'"

At Erza's blank look he elaborated, "You touch someone mildly inappropriately until they make you stop. That meeting was boring, what else were we suppose to be doing?"

"Listening. Helping fix the problem at hand?" Erza commented dryly.

Cana shook her head with a roll of her eye. "Are you done yet? Can we drink in peace now?" She was obviously becoming annoyed.

"No. One more incidences. Yesterday you had a conversation with Natsu. That conversation is what made me confront you about this."

"We were just joking around, no need to get your panties in a bunch!" Macao clamped a hand on Erza's shoulder. Her dark eyes trailed down to glower at it. The man retracted his hand like she'd bit it.

"Elaborate."

"How do you expect us to do that? There's nothing to elaborate on. We were just messing around with Natsu. No harm, no foul." Cana propped her elbow onto the counter and leaned around Macao to get a better look at the red head. "Honest."

Eyes narrowed, Erza stood up and levelly stared at the drinking buddies. "I'm sorry to disturb you then. Enjoy the rest of the day."

She didn't wait for their reply when she walked away. She had even more thinking to do now. Time to go rant at Gray for a bit. That's how she always got her thoughts in order. Plus, she knew if she threatened him enough, whatever she said would be taken to the grave with him.

* * *

><p>It was early in the evening when she returned to the guild. The sun was almost completely set and the air had cooled considerably.<p>

After talking things out at Gray [Yes, at, because he wasn't allowed to comment] she'd decided that she owed Cana and Macao an apology even if she wasn't close to being convinced of their innocence. She wasn't a naive idiot like _some_ guild members.

At first glance, the two she was looking for were missing in action, but after asking Mirajane about them, Erza found out that they'd step out the backdoor for some air a couple minutes ago.

Thanking Mirajane she quickly moved in the direction of the backdoor. She absentmindedly noticed that Lucy and Natsu were talking again. They were acting as if nothing bad had happened yesterday. She supposed that was a good sign.

When she reached the door she opened it slowly and peeked out. True to Mirajane's words, Cana and Macao were outside.

Cana was leaning up against the brick wall of the guild and Macao was dangerously close to her, considering not five hours ago they'd been trying to sway her into believing that they were only friends.

"That was a close one with Erza earlier. I didn't think anyone had caught on yet." Cana murmured just loud enough for Erza to hear from the door.

"I know, but Cana-dear, I think it's time we told them. It's been six months, they deserve to know."

Cana considered this silently for a moment. "I'll tell you what, let me face Guildarts first. Once the water is cleared with him we can go public. I promise to do it soon."

"You said that two months ago." Macao chuckled and nuzzled his nose against hers.

Cana smiled clandestinely and held out her pinky finger in-between the small space separating them, "Pinky promise?"

Macao hooked his pinky finger with hers and returned the shy smile. "This time you better hold up your end of the deal. Otherwise I may have to punish you!" His voice dropped into a husky whisper.

Erza choose to duck back into the guild when Cana leaned forward and closed the space between them with her lips.

If there is one thing that Erza loved most, it was being right.

* * *

><p>Apparently, I really like putting Fairy Tail in almost-closing situations. I don't know why...<p>

And if you were wondering what Makarov had to say at the fancy restaurant, don't ask me because I have no idea XD


End file.
